Kwaidan (film)

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Kwaidan

Directed by	Masaki Kobayashi
Produced by	Shigeru Wakatsuki
Written by	Lafcadio Hearn Yôko Mizuki
Starring	Rentaro Mikuni Michiyo Aratama Misako Watanabe Tatsuya Nakadai
Music by	Tôru Takemitsu
Cinematography	Yoshio Miyajima
Distributed by	Toho Company Ltd.
Release date(s)	December 29, 1964 November 22, 1965
Running time	183 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
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Kwaidan (怪談, Kaidan^?) is a 1965 Japanese anthology film directed by Masaki Kobayashi; the title means 'ghost story'. It is based on stories from Lafcadio Hearn's collections of Japanese folk tales. The film consists of four separate and unrelated stories. Kwaidan may only have specialized appeal today but at the time it marked the most expensive production in the history of Japanese cinema.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The four stories

"The Black Hair" was adapted from "The Reconciliation", which appeared in Hearn's collection Shadowings (1900).

"The Woman of the Snow" is adapted from Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1903). It depicts the folkloric character of Yuki-onna, a ghostly female figure who inhabits snowy regions.

"Hoichi the Earless" is also adapted from Hearn's Kwaidan (though it incorporates aspects of The Tale of the Heike that are merely referenced indirectly in Hearn's book). It depicts the folkloric tale of Hoichi the Earless, about a blind musician or biwa hoshi whose speciality is singing the The Tale of the Heike, about the Battle of Dan-no-ura, a war fought between Emperor Antoku and Minamoto no Yoritomo during the last phase of the Genpei War. Hoichi eventually finds himself singing to the ghosts of the very heroes that are the subject of his song.

"In a Cup of Tea" is adapted from Hearn's Kottō: Being Japanese Curios, with Sundry Cobwebs (1902).

[edit] Style

While Kwaidan is often described as a horror film, it is not gory or sensational, relying instead on slow buildups of tension and on quiet suspense. Kobayashi's visual style is expressionist, using obviously artificial sets and colorful backdrops lit from behind for many of his outdoor scenes, lending them an almost fairy tale-like quality (the graveyard scenes in "Hoichi, the Earless" and the background depicting the giant eye of "The Woman of the Snow" are examples).